One troy ounce pure copper bullion to the winner.

Okay... you guys are good. You got that last one pretty easy, so we'll try something quite a bit more difficult this time. The question is: On what date and year does the Upper Peninsula of Michigan secede and form it's own Republic of Superior? And... what day of the week will that be?

Background: This question is related to the story in the science-fiction/adventure novel A SUPERIOR STATE OF AFFAIRS, by yours truly. There are a number of coin references in the story.

The prize is pictured here... a bullion coin containing over one troy ounce of pure copper, with the words COPPER COUNTRY on obverse surrounding an image of the legendary miner Arne Harjaala (one of the main characters in the novel). His lamp and hat date the scene at around 1906. On reverse is an image of the modern shaft house of the Quincy #2 mine in Hancock Michigan. This is one of the few mine buildings of the region that still stands, and it is now a National Historic site complete with mine tours and a gift shop. The main action scenes in the novel take place around and within this mine. The legend on reverse says ONE COPPER in large letters, with text in small letters such that a more preceise reading would be "contains ONE troy oz COPPER .997 pure"

This coin was struck this year as the first in a series, to culminate in 2009 with the 200th anniversary of the birth of Douglas Houghton, the Michigan State geologist who first recognized the potential of the copper deposits of the Upper Peninsula.

 

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So far I have found this much info;

Efforts to secede and form a new state from Michigan have a long pedigree. Historical attempts at formation date back to 1897, when the proposal for a State of Superior included the Upper Peninsula and portions of Wisconsin.[2]

Sometime in the 1960s, there was talk of the U.P. seceding to become part of Wisconsin. In preparation for this move, the U.P. asked for, and received, its own area code; 906, as no area code in the U.S. is allowed to cross state lines.[citation needed]

In 1962, an Upper Peninsula Independence Association was founded to advocate for the formation of State of Superior. A secession bill was submitted to the Michigan Legislature, and 20,000 petion signatures were collected -- 36,000 short of the number needed -- for a ballot referendum on separation.[3]

Efforts continued into the mid-1970's, with residents of the Upper Peninsula and northern Wisconsin, each resentful of a tax drains and other perceived slights from their downstate cousins, joining together to pursue the desired legislation.[4]

...the idea has gained serious attention at times, though it is quite unlikely to ever come to fruition due to the large amount of funding that the area receives from the lower part of the state, and the strong connections that were cemented by the completion of the Mackinac Bridge, which gave the peninsula a direct highway connection to the rest of the state.

Several prominent legislators including local politician Dominic Jacobetti formally attempted this legislation in the 1970s, with little traction.[1]

I know this does not answer your question, but it is a start to the research needed to find the answer.

 

Based on some digging, I'd go with: January 18, 2017. Wednesday.


Other guesses I could come up with are:

1) July 4, 2017 which is a Tuesday.

2) January 26, 2017 which is a Thursday.

3) November 7, 2017 which is of course a Tuesday.

 

Thursday...January 19, 2017. Just for fun.

 

My simpleton guess would be February, 1 (Wednesday), 2017

 

I will have to guess February 22 (wednesday), 2017

 

No winner yet

I don't want to say too much for fear of giving too many hints... but none of the answers are correct so far. Some good tries though!
Tom

 

April 1st 2017. April Fools Day which is a Saturday

 

May 15 2017, which is a thursday.

 

I will guess April 3, 2017, a Monday, which would be my 52nd birthday.

 

January, 2017

cant find the day...


It is January, 2017. The Copper Country, on the shores of Lake Superior, is socked in by the biggest blizzard of the century. Beneath a heavy blanket of snow, the simmering separatist movement in Michigan's Upper Peninsula (the U.P.) is coming to a boil. Ever since the United States merged with Canada and Central America and formed the new "North American Federation," the state government had given scant attention to the problems of its northern outpost. Digger Puttonen is a freelance geologist who grew up poking around the old copper mines. Possessed of an uncanny ability to "find" things, he and two other Michigan Tech graduate students formed a small partnership called the Midnight Mining Company and developed a radically new technology based on an enhanced understanding of the laws of physics. George Frederick Sherman, a ruthless Chicago industrialist, gets wind of the tiny company through his computer people. He quickly sees how important it is, and decides that he must gain control of it before the government does, at any cost. The only flaw in his scheme seems to be a couple of his own employees, Steve Sanders and Eileen Donovan, a pair of computer geeks who have fallen in love with each other and seem to be just too damned smart for their own good. Kicked out of his own laboratory by Sherman's machinations, Digger Puttonen is trying to drown his sorrows in beer at a local tavern when he meets Arne Harjaala, an old-time miner down on his luck. Arne tells Digger an unbelievably tall tale of a mine disaster, yet Digger's sixth sense tell him the story is true, no matter how impossible it seems. Digger's quest to find out what happened to Arne leads in unexpected directions.

 

Still no hits.

 

april 17th 2017
monday?

 

Tom, how about August 21, 2017. There's a total solar eclips on that date.

Lou

 

Oooh! I didn't know about the eclipse! Might have to write that into the sequel.... but still no correct answers.

Tom

 

1st Of Jan 2017 which is a Tuesday

 

Still no hits!

 

October 13th, 2007
Just because.

 

or: October 13th, 2017
Just because.
? Do we have to say what day of the week it is?

 

Yeah I was looking for a day of the week also... just to make it a little harder... but no, October 13 of neither 2007 nor 2017 is it.